Jax ends sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines in Lafayette, other stores

Chain president: Newtown shooting 'weighed heavily on me'

This is one of the last Bushmaster .223-caliber assault rifles at the Jax store in Lafayette. The outdoor gear retailer has decided it will no longer sell assault rifles and high-capacity magazines at any of its stores.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
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Outdoor gear retailer Jax Mercantile has decided in the wake of last week's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school that it will no longer sell assault rifles and high-capacity magazines at any of its stores, including the one in Lafayette.

Jim Quinlan, president of the Fort Collins-based chain, said he made the decision last weekend after 26 people -- 20 of them elementary school students as young as 6 -- were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. The shooter used a Bushmaster .223-caliber AR-15 rifle, which is classified by the federal government as an assault weapon.

Quinlan's decision took effect Monday.

"(The Newtown shooting) was especially tragic -- it was unthinkable. It was something that weighed heavily on me," Quinlan said Friday. "It makes me sick."

He said he had thought about ending assault rifle sales at Jax after the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that left 12 people dead and 58 injured in July, but it wasn't until the tragedy at Sandy Hook that he felt he had to act.

The Lafayette store is one of three Jax locations that sells firearms. The chain, which has been in business since 1955, has six stores overall -- five in Colorado and one in Iowa. It opened a second location in Lafayette earlier this year.

"I just don't feel that we need to be in the business of selling high-capacity magazines and military assault rifles," said Quinlan, who has three children ranging in ages from 11 to 14. "These weapons are designed for killing people -- that's just not something I want to sell."

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He said magazines holding more than 10 rounds will no longer be carried by the chain. Quinlan said Jax will continue to sell the assault rifles and high-capacity magazines it has in inventory but won't be placing any new orders. He didn't specify what types of rifles at Jax constitute assault-style rifles, though he said the store has been selling the popular AR-15 model.

"I'm pleased that the so-called sporting goods sector of the market realizes that these types of rifles and high-capacity magazines are not part of the sportsman's world," she said. "Maybe the world is finally waking up to the fact that we've lost balance on guns in the United States."

Levy said she hopes this is not the last time the private sector takes a stand on semiautomatic weapons. She cited the decision earlier this week by Cerberus Capital Management to sell off Freedom Group, one of the nation's largest gun making conglomerates, in direct response to the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Freedom Group includes Bushmaster, which manufactures the rifle that was used by Newtown shooter Adam Lanza.

Also, Dick's Sporting Goods announced earlier this week that it would suspend the sale of certain semiautomatic rifles from its stores, according to CNN. Sports Authority did not return a query Friday about gun sales at its stores.

Outspoken gun rights advocate Dave Kopel, an adjunct law professor at the University of Denver, scoffed at Quinlan's decision to discontinue the sale of what he described as "the most popular rifle in America."

"What he's saying is that all those large numbers of customers he sold the magazines and AR-15s to are murderous psychopaths," Kopel said. "If he thinks that, why was he selling them in the first place? There's all kinds of people who want to blame the type of gun and not the murderer or the failure of society to treat the mentally ill."

Jax's move comes at a time when the sale of guns is exploding nationwide, as people anticipate a government crackdown on assault weapons following the Connecticut tragedy. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it set a new record for single-day background check submittals last weekend. Meanwhile, gun sellers have had trouble keeping the popular AR-15 rifle in stock across the country.

Talk of reviving a ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004, took on a new sense of urgency this past week in Washington, D.C., and President Obama has voiced his support for such a prohibition.

Quinlan acknowledged that his decision will likely not sit well with many of Jax's customers, and it was not a move he made lightly. He said he is not "challenging anyone's Second Amendment rights" but that continuing to sell the high-powered rifles at his stores just "didn't feel right."

"There are a lot of customers who take passionate offense to this decision," he said. "The customer is the boss, but in this instance, if that's the product they want to purchase, they can purchase it elsewhere."

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